The pretty, fair young lady holding this cute chubby baby girl in her arms said this loudly. She looked like a foreigner.
A dark south Indian looking lady in front of me in the queue at the doctor's had reached out to touch the baby on her pink, glowing cheeks.
She withdrew her hand as soon as she heard the reprimand from the Mom.
I was shocked. The dark woman looked at me and smiled. As if she had expected it all along.
I continued to gaze at the baby. She was so beautiful. Fair and having curly hair.
Her Mom looked in front at the cashier as she proceeded with the payment. After a while she walked away as if to just get away from us untouchable Indians!
This made me think.
Why do whites treat us this way? In our own land?
Now what maha awful thing would happen if her baby was touched?
If she was worried about her getting infected, what was she doing at the hospital?
Would she be immune from germs out here?
I wonder how the south Indian woman would get treated if she happened to venture into the white woman's land some day.
Would she be heckled out because she might just bring in some infection perhaps into the germ free nation?
We Indians have this tendency to warm up to perfect strangers, cuddle perfectly strange, cute babies. We don't even think twice about the repercussions if any.
I remember the time I handed over my 4 month old chubby looking sonny to perfect strangers on a train. They had come over to where we were sitting and had begged us to have them hold him for a while.
We willingly handed him over.
But I would definitely think twice about cuddling a white baby ever...
Comments (7 so far )
Yet can't understand why anyone with even a basic rational would discriminate due to color of skin ? Aren't we the thinker, The consciousness rather skin color ? How come those who blow the trumpet of intellectual superiority on every stage don't have this basic intelligence ? Wasn't 'I think therefore I am' originated in the land of whites ? Probably it stayed in the books rather gaining space in so called enlightened race's mind.
What role my skin color has in my writing something or using the keyboard now ? But then had I been behaved bad with due to the color of my skin probably the thoughts would be guiding the expressions accordingly.
So yes the color bias is there, and at the same cultural take on touch exist in places.
Thanks MM for the article ...